Wolfbane

Not to be confused with the once highly touted, Rick Rubin-endorsed, late-‘80s hard rockers Wolfsbane, Wolfbane were an obscure New Wave of British Heavy Metal outfit, active for just four years beginning in March 1980, that never even recorded a proper album. Instead, vocalist/guitarist Gramie Dee, bassist Dale Lee, and drummer Syd Mercury cobbled together a four-song demo tape they could shop to record labels in 1981 (allegedly attracting some interest from MCA), before undergoing a crippling series of lineup changes (multiple drummers and a couple of short-tenured lead vocalists) amid small-time U.K. and German tour dates and a second demo cut in April 1982. Even then, Wolfbane were struggling just to get noticed, and after finding some stability with new drummer Rick Henshaw in 1983, their hopes were dashed yet again when their tour van and equipment were destroyed under suspicious conditions. This convinced all involved that it was time to throw in the towel, but Dee and Lee would later re-emerge with a thrash metal band named Blood Money, and, amazingly, Wolfbane's long-forgotten demos were eventually dredged up for release on CD by the Shadow Kingdom label in 2010, thereby ensuring some never-expected exposure for the band.